Negotiation Updates

Negotiations Update  To once again explain these negotiations using the NMB’s expedited negotiation process; articles of the agreement were discussed between the carrier and the union by small groups separated into sub committees. These sub-committee discussions broke down and thoroughly reviewed each paragraph of the article they were assigned and contemplated changes proposed by either […]

Phase 1 Now Complete in Principal The parties have now reached conclusion in principal on the entire agreement for non-economic Phase 1 issues. The work of crafting language will continue in parallel with the negotiation of Phase 2 economic discussions. The process of crafting language has been slow to this point and is a concern

Last week the language committee met to go over, line by line, the changes agreed to in principal by the sub committees over the last six weeks. Between the three separate agreements there were over 100 items in 24 articles and provisions that required review for Phase 1 in order to correctly draft the new

This week the parties met in Chicago to round out Phase 1 – (non economic) reconciliation talks. We are on schedule at this point and have discussed every article in the Phase 1 agenda. Other than a few remaining reconciliation issues that may have room for some further discussion, Phase 1 of the process is

This week the parties met in Chicago to continue Phase 1, non-economic reconciliation talks. The focus was on Articles 3 – (Classifications), Article 17 – (Overtime) and Article 12 – (Field Trips). The Union committee was missing a very important member due to health issues for this session. Allen Cosides suffered a heart attack last

The third consecutive week of meetings between the parties began on Monday January 21, 2013 with an internal union caucus. The purpose of the caucus was to discuss the activity of the previous two weeks and to assess the progress made to date. In addition, the negotiating committee discussed the recommendation of the seniority integration

Negotiations Update The parties met for a second consecutive week of bargaining this week in Chicago. We tackled some of the more substantive phase 1 portions of the agreements. The articles discussed were Article 3 – Covered Crafts, Classifications, and Bid Areas; Article 4 – Seniority; Article 13 – Training; Article 7 – Hours of

The negotiating committee began year 2013 with formal meetings the week of January 7th. These meetings started off with a day and a half of training courtesy of the National Mediation Board. This Board required training for the expedited facilitated problem solving,  or FPS,  process placed the company and the union in the same room